


Ellison & Erwin

by valisi



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Erwin Smith Week 2016, Erwin Smith's Childhood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-11
Updated: 2016-10-11
Packaged: 2018-08-21 19:38:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8258041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/valisi/pseuds/valisi
Summary: Erwin Week Day 1: ChildhoodBreakfast, dinner and a bedtime story with father and son.





	

When Ellison Smith's alarm clock rang, he sat up in bed slowly and turned it off. He had already been awake for a while and had spent the time laying in bed, enjoying the quiet. Ellison threw the blankets back on his small bed and turned to put his feet on the hardwood floor. A yawn forced his mouth open and he rubbed his eyes sleepily. After his yawn, Ellison put on his glasses and stood from the bed, stretching. He blinked a few times, adjusting to the clear picture of the room around him. 

Ellison left his bedroom and went to the small bathroom, the only bathroom in his home. He relieved his bladder, cleaned his teeth and combed his hair. Then, he spent a while looking in the mirror. Even though he felt like he slept well, he still looked tired. He patted a bit more at his blond hair and adjusted his glasses again. 

After leaving the bathroom, Ellison went back to his bedroom and dressed for the day. He chose a pale green button up shirt and black slacks for the day. Then, Ellison remembered that he had to administer a test that day and dreaded it. His class had not been doing very well lately, and he couldn't figure out how to motivate his students. Ellison considered his options while he buttoned the final top buttons of his shirt and walked towards the door of his bedroom. He chose a book from the small bookshelf in his room and walked to the small kitchen.

He put his book on the wooden dining table and moved through the room to his cabinets. Ellison pulled a medium sized pot from one of the cabinets. He added some water to the pot and put it on top of the stove. As an after thought, he opened the stove and added more wood to feed the fire. It would take a few minutes for the water to boil, and then it was time to try and wake up Erwin. 

Ellison walked through the small house and opened the door to his son's room. He had to stop in the doorway and grin at the sight. The little boy was sprawled out on his back with limbs in all directions. Erwin was fitful sleeper some nights, and he had kicked off every blanket from the bed. But his head was still on the pillow, and that was some progress even if his blond hair was wildly mussed and tangled. Ellison crossed the room and picked Erwin's blankets up from the floor. 

“Erwin,” Ellison said. “It's time to wake up.” Erwin groaned weakly and rolled over onto his side facing away from his father. Ellison folded Erwin's blankets and put them on the foot of the bed. “Come on, son. Breakfast is almost ready.” Erwin winced, wanting breakfast but also wanting more sleep. 

“Just a few more minutes, Papa,” Erwin whispered. 

“Not this morning,” Ellison said. “I have to give a test today.” Erwin inhaled deeply and exhaled with irritation. He pushed himself up from the bed, with some effort and sat up, rubbing his sleepy eyes, mussing up his eyebrows in the process. “Good boy,” Ellison said before turning to leave the room. Erwin let his hands drop to the bed with a huff before he ran a hand through his tangled hair. 

Erwin stepped out of bed and shuffled his feet through the room to go to the bathroom. He followed the same routine as his father. 

When Ellison returned to the stove, the water was boiling and it was time to add the oats. He poured enough oats in the pot for both he and Erwin. Then, he checked his jar of black treacle. He had enough for both of them, but he would have to buy more for later in the week. 

By the time Ellison had finished cooking the oatmeal and putting it in their bowls, Erwin had come to the small table in the kitchen and sat down with a history text book, dressed for school. Erwin opened his book to the reading assignment he had read the night before and began reading his favorite parts again. He was specifically interested in the parts of the section that mentioned military activity, and he wanted to commit it to memory. 

Ellison put a steaming bowl of oatmeal, with plenty of treacle, down in front of Erwin, next to the book and walked around the back of Erwin's chair to sit down himself. When Ellison was seated, Erwin looked up from his book and gave his papa a sleepy smile. 

“Thanks for the treacle, Papa,” Erwin said. He began stirring the hot food to distribute the sweetness throughout the bowl. 

“You're welcome,” Ellison said. “Did you sleep well?” Erwin nodded and turned back to his book. Ellison opened his own book and began reading. When he heard Erwin move the spoon in his bowl, Ellison's eyes darted up and watched Erwin blow on the steaming oatmeal before testing its hotness. Ellison's eyes dropped back down to the book. He was having trouble seeing past his glasses to read the small words, and he took them off, setting them on the table, unfolded. Ellison's eyes moved over the words in the book faster then, and he began eating his own breakfast, making sure to blow on each bite before attempting to eat it. 

Ellison lost himself in the literature, speculating about each sentence. Since he had been teaching, he had picked apart every piece of literature the government had produced, trying to find fault with it. The faults were plenty, but all of it could be counted as poor choice of words. However, Ellison enjoyed creating new theories about the outside world through the government's literature. It stimulated his imagination and he dreamed of the day Erwin would be old enough to understand so they could discuss it. 

“Papa,” Erwin said. Ellison lifted his head and looked at Erwin. The boy's thick eyebrows were furrowed, and he was squinting at Ellison's glasses. Even his nose was scrunched with skepticism. Ellison was intrigued by Erwin's thoughtful look. 

“Yes, dear.” 

“Where do eye glasses come from?” Erwin asked. Ellison frowned, thinking about Erwin's question. He sensed that he understood Erwin's meaning, but he needed to know more. 

“You know where glasses come from, Erwin. You were with me when we picked them up at Mr. Caito's shop.” 

“Right,” Erwin nodded and his frown lessened. He looked at his papa. “But did Mr. Caito make the first glasses ever?” Ellison caught Erwin's meaning then, and he felt the pride swell in his chest. He couldn't stop the gentle smile spreading over his face. The mental capacity of his six year old astounded him every day. 

“No. His father taught him,” Ellison said. 

“So his father made eye glasses first?” 

“No,” Ellison said. “We've been behind the protection of walls for almost 100 years, Erwin. I believe that eye glasses were invented before we fled from the Titans.” 

“Huh,” Erwin said, frowning thoughtfully again. He stared at Ellison's glasses, still trying to make sense of what he was trying to say. Then, he looked back to his papa. “So someone invented glasses before the walls were built?” 

“Yes,” Ellison said. Erwin nodded, accepting the new information. 

"Do we know who?" 

"No," Ellison said flatly. Erwin's mouth twitched to one side, and Ellison saw that his son's brain was still working overtime trying to decide what he wanted to ask next. “Finish your breakfast, son. We have to leave soon.” Erwin nodded and turned back to his book. Ellison's light green eyes lingered on his son for a while, watching the chubby cheeked boy blowing on his oatmeal even though it was cool enough to eat. 

Suddenly, Ellison reached over and ran his thumb over one of Erwin's thick eyebrows. 

“Papa!” Erwin protested, swatting Ellison's hand away. Erwin smoothed his eyebrows out himself then. 

“You have eyebrows like your mother,” Ellison said. “But she plucked hers to shape them.” 

“You're not plucking them again. It hurts,” Erwin insisted. Ellison shook his head and turned back to his book. Even though Ellison's eyes crossed the page, he wasn't reading anymore. He was considering how old Erwin would have to be before they could talk more about their captivity. They finished their breakfast in silence. 

******

That evening, Ellison and Erwin sat down to have a light dinner of potato and broccoli before bed. Both of them had open books on the table, but they didn't read so much at dinner time. 

“Tell me about your day, Erwin,” Ellison said. 

“It was great!” Erwin said. “Mike and I invented a house for birds during recess! We built it from sticks and mud.” Ellison chuckled at the story. He wavered on whether or not he should tell Erwin that bird houses had already been invented, but he ultimately decided that Erwin would learn the difference between invention and building later. 

“Did any birds come live in your house?” 

“Not yet!” Erwin said. “But I climbed on Mike's shoulders, and we put it on a limb, in the tallest tree in the play yard, so the birds could see it. We're going to check tomorrow!” Ellison laughed at the image of his son on the much taller boy's shoulders, trying to push a tiny house onto a tree limb. And Mike had long bangs that covered his eyes which that made the image so much funnier. “What's so funny?” Erwin asked with a bit of childish irritation. Ellison shook his head. 

“I'm just laughing because I'm happy that you had such a good day, son,” Ellison said. 

“Anyway,” Erwin continued, no longer offended by his father's laughter. “Nile tried to make a bird house then, and no one was impressed, Papa,” Erwin said with a tone that was a bit sad. “Everyone was saying that Mike and I had already invented it, and his didn't count.” Ellison's eyebrows raised and he nodded, continuing to eat. He wondered how long it would take Erwin to realize that when someone has invented something truly unique that it's impossible to keep people from talking about it. Maybe Erwin already had decided that on his own and simply hadn't voiced it. Ellison wanted Erwin to come to his own conclusions, but he mentally saved the example to use later when Erwin was older and curious about life before the walls. “But Nile made a good house too. Better than ours actually, since he was able to pick out the weak parts of our house.” 

“Did the other kids bully Nile?” 

“They tried,” Erwin said before taking another bite. He chewed and swallowed quickly. “But Nile doesn't let other kids bully him. He's too grumpy.” Ellison smiled and nodded. 

“That's good,” Ellison said. 

“How was your day, Papa?” Erwin asked. Ellison shrugged. 

“It was very boring in comparison to building bird houses,” Ellison admitted. 

“I can teach you how to make one if you want,” Erwin offered smugly. Ellison nodded with a small smile. 

“That would be fun. Thank you, Erwin. What did you learn today?” 

“We learned about the Underground today, Papa,” Erwin said. He furrowed his eyebrows and squinted at his food. Rather than taking another bite, Erwin pushed his food around on his plate a bit. “Is it forbidden to go down there?” Erwin asked. Ellison found Erwin's tone suspicious, and wondered just how young Erwin was going to be when his rebellious nature finally bloomed. He was the offspring of two very unruly people, and it was inevitable that Erwin would be drawn towards rebellion one day. Ellison was curious how it would eventually manifest though.

“It's not that great. Only really great places are forbidden,” Ellison said flippantly. 

“Really?” Erwin looked at his father and automatically leaned forward a bit, analyzing the words for dishonesty. 

“Well, I wouldn't want to go down there,” Ellison said firmly. 

“Why?” Erwin narrowed his eyes at his father. Ellison shrugged as if the topic of visiting the Underground wasn't impressive. 

“There are mostly just criminals and trash piles down there,” Ellison said. “If I went down there, I wouldn't carry any money because it would only be stolen. And I wouldn't wear nice clothes because they would only get dirty.” Erwin leaned back in his chair then, but his eyes were still narrowed with suspicion. 

“It sounded pretty forbidden from the way the teacher described it,” Erwin said. “Maybe, I'll go when I'm bigger. Probably when I'm twelve,” Erwin nodded solemnly. Ellison had to rub his lips together and avert his eyes away from Erwin to keep himself from laughing. 

“That sounds good,” Ellison said with a shaky voice. “Take Mike with you.” Ellison's eyes darted up to see Erwin continue to eat his meal. Then, Ellison covered his mouth with his free hand so he could grin wildly without Erwin seeing it. When he had composed himself, he continued to eat. 

At bedtime, Ellison fixed the sheets and blankets on Erwin's bed for him. He tucked Erwin in and sat on the edge of the bed. 

“Papa,” Erwin said. Ellison fluffed Erwin's pillow under his little blond head. 

“Yes.” 

“Can you tell me a story about Mommy tonight?” Erwin asked. Ellison smiled gently and nodded. He liked telling the stories as much as Erwin liked hearing them. 

“Which one do you want to hear?” 

“The first time you saw her,” Erwin said. His big blue eyes spread wide with anticipation. Ellison smiled and pulled Erwin's covers up a bit higher around the boy's neck. 

“Alright,” Ellison said. “Just once though.” Erwin pulled the covers up to his nose and tried to hide that he was already yawning, but, of course, his papa saw it. “About eight years ago, I went all the way down to the Trost district to see if there was a teaching job in that area that I could apply for after school. I like Wall Sina, but I was young and thought I wanted a change of scenery.” Erwin's eyelids fluttered, already heavy with sleep, and Ellison waited. After a moment, Erwin's blue eyes were wide open again. “While I was down there, the Survey Corps was leaving early one morning for a mission. They had to ride through Trost to go down to Wall Maria. I stood with the crowd to watch them walk through the city, and I forced my way to the front because I had never seen the march before. And in the procession of hundreds of soldiers, there was one woman who I couldn't stop watching.” Ellison closed his eyes and imagined her. “She was riding a tall chestnut colored horse, and she moved with the horse like she was part of the creature's body. She looked forward, following her Squad Leader, but from where I was standing in the crowd I could see her radiant blue eyes. They looked like they were on fire, and over her eyes she had dark, thick eyebrows that contrasted her pale face. She had long black hair, that was as dark as night, and she kept it tied up on her head in a thick bun. And she looked brilliant, like a queen riding into battle. I just had to have her attention, even if it was for a single second. So, when she rode by me, I pulled my handkerchief out of my pocket and offered it up to her.” Ellison had to pause because that was one of his favorite parts of the story, but he continued without opening his eyes. The memory was so clear in his head. “And I told her that she dropped it.” Erwin giggled, and Ellison opened his eyes and smiled when he saw his little boy's radiant blue eyes staring up at him. Ellison was so glad that Erwin had inherited those eyes so he could look at them every day. “She took the handkerchief from my hand without stopping her horse, and she didn't say anything to me.” Erwin laughed at his father's silliness. 

“Mommy would've never fell for that!” Erwin said with complete confidence, even if he had no memories of her. “She knew you lied.” 

“She did,” Ellison agreed. “But that made me love her even more because she was kind enough not to humiliate my weak attempt to speak to her. And I saw her reach under her green cape to put the handkerchief in her pocket while she rode away. After that, I made a trip down to Trost every month, for six months, to give her a handkerchief when she rode by me. I had to buy a new handkerchief every time.” Erwin beamed. His favorite part was coming up soon. Ellison looked away from his son and stared blankly at the plain headboard of Erwin's bed while he told the rest of the story. “She didn't acknowledge me for the first two months, but on the third month, she gave me a handkerchief in return. It was plain white, and the name 'Melanie' was embroidered into it with black thread. That's how I learned her name. One month later, she handed me another handkerchief with her full name and address of the headquarters written on a piece of paper folded into it. So I began writing to her, and I even met her down in Trost a few times, on her off days, to take her out for tea.” Ellison paused and looked down at Erwin. Erwin's blue eyes were still searching his father's face, looking for his favorite part to still happen. “After six months of watching your mother march into battle, I wrote to her and told her I wouldn't be able to come see her ride outside of the walls the next month because I had begun teaching in Wall Sina. On the day of the next expedition, my heart was so grieved that I couldn't see her ride outside of the Trost district, that I had trouble teaching my class that day.” Erwin nodded, waiting for the next part. “But when I came home from school, your mother was standing on my door step, in full uniform and with her left arm in a sling.” Ellison smiled down at Erwin, and he purposely paused. Erwin moved the blanket away from his face. 

“Say the next part, Papa,” Erwin encouraged quietly. 

“She told me that she had fallen off of her horse before she could leave Wall Maria,” Ellison said. “And then she told me that she loved me.” Erwin watched his father's face. Ellison looked happy, but he missed Melanie and couldn't help but show a bit of sadness in his eyes. 

“That's my favorite part,” Erwin whispered. 

“Mine too,” Ellison agreed, also in a whisper. 

“Do you think,” Erwin's eyelids were fluttering, trying to close without his permission. “Mommy fell off of her horse on purpose?” 

“I don't know,” Ellison admitted quietly. “You're mother was very, very smart, Erwin. And when she wanted something, she always found a way to have it, no matter what it cost her.” Ellison had to stop talking and soothe himself for a moment. Erwin's eyes were closed then anyway, and Ellison was glad. He didn't want Erwin to see the sadness he could feel on his own face. 

Ellison was thinking of how badly Melanie wanted Erwin. She wanted to be a mother so badly, but she also wanted to remain in the Corps. Ellison had promised her that she could have both. He couldn't deny her anything. They're love was too young and so blazing hot that Ellison would've promised her any outrageous thing she wanted. 

When Melanie became pregnant, she took off from expeditions and stayed home until Erwin was weaned. During that time was when the majority of Ellison's memories of Melanie were created. It was the best year and three months of his life. But Melanie was a wild spirit and could never happily live without going beyond the walls. She couldn't sleep well at night knowing that her brothers and sisters were risking their lives when she was living a dream. Ellison comforted her as best as he could. Secretly, he had hoped that Melanie would settle down after Erwin was born and stay home. But she hadn't. She only became more restless with time. As much as Melanie loved her son and husband, that love couldn't tether her to the ground. She had to fly again, and Ellison had to let her go. Every time she came home from beyond the walls, Ellison would run out of their home, capture her, lift her into the air and spin her around before holding her in his arms. She had to fight him to make him release her so she could go to Erwin. 

Melanie had been able to mother Erwin and the serve in the Survey Corps for one year and two months before she didn't come home after an expedition. Ellison had been mentally preparing himself for the day that Melanie wouldn't come home. But on the day that a Survey Corps soldier delivered Melanie's wings and said they couldn't recover any remains, Ellison fell to his knees on the threshold of their home, cradling her cape in his hands, and wept into the green fabric. 

Ellison blinked, surfacing from the memories, remembering where he was and looked at Erwin's sleeping face. He smiled. Erwin's breathing was even. Unable to help himself, Ellison reached out and petted Erwin's hair down, parting it on the left. He leaned over the sleeping boy and put a kiss on Erwin's forehead. 

“Goodnight, sweetheart,” Ellison whispered. “Papa and Mommy love you.” Ellison ran his thumb over each of Erwin's thick eyebrows, smoothing them. Erwin crinkled his nose in his sleep and rolled over onto his side, away from his father.

**Author's Note:**

> I doubt that I will be able to complete the entire week of prompts for Erwin Week. I'm currently researching for an ongoing series. However, this story attacked my writer's brain out of nowhere, and I knew it would be short. If I am assaulted with any more ideas, I'll try to share them in a timely manner.
> 
> Also, I did not offer this to anyone for a beta read. If you've noticed a fault, please bring it to my attention so I may fix it.


End file.
